Lovely Vintage Fabrics

[Katydid]

Hi Girls. It's now the end of summer, I have a full time job, and much more free time than I did over the past couple months when I was working two jobs every day and still trying to get to the gym in between. So....now that I have a pile of 40's patterns that have done nothing but take up space the past few months, I think I'm going to devote my free time to sewing. I didn't think the sewing FAQ was quite the right place to put this but if I'm wrong, you can let me know. My questions are definitely more fabric centered. I guess you can call me dumb but seeing as how there are no good fabric stores around here I've had to put up with crappy JoAnne Fabrics my whole life plus I wouldn't call myself an expert seamstress. Therefore, I don't know too much about how different fabrics drape/look on a finished garment/etc. Maybe I'm the only one but I'd love some help on choosing fabrics for some dresses I'd like to make and on what exact fabrics they used in the 40's for different dresses. For example, there's a shirt dress pattern I have somewhere....I've seen shirt dresses nowadays made of shirting material; did they use shirting material for dresses in the 40's? Also, summer suits; I've seen a couple patterns for suits but what kind of material would be good for summer? What sorts of dresses might be made from cotton? If I can get some pics up maybe I can illustrate what styles I'm talking about. Really, though, pardon my ignorance. I found a woman about an hour away from me (she has a website too but she's so close) who has fabric for sale even though it's not online or in her store. She has a bolt of seafoam crepe which sounds lovely as well as a bolt of black crepe and some decent yardage of solid, striped, and floral rayon. I've been trying to schedule an appointment to meet with her and go through it all but no luck so far. But before I go crazy buying up fabric, I'm wondering what I should be buying. Sorry for so long a post but thanks in advance for any help you can give a poor, ignorant soul!

 

[Tourbillion]

Cottons are great for house dresses and day dresses. A medium weight cotton is good for those, a soft and light filmy one for dresses with more gathers and pleats. Without patterns for reference it is hard to recommend though.

They also used rayons for day dresses. Crepe is a little dressier, and rayons have great drape--they make really flattering dresses.

I also like silks, but lets not discuss the prices of vintage silks, it is obscene.

For suits, linen for summer or a light wool--but gabardine was most popular year round.

Anyway, when choosing fabric you need to look at how it drapes. Does it stick out when you hold it up or fall straight? A stiff taffeta would be great for a new look-early 50's dress, but a disaster for a 30's bias cut dress.

 

[Sunny]

I love fabric!

Make sure the cottons you use are fairly lightweight. Heavier cottons have no drape whatsoever. They wrinkle and look "crumbly" and stick to themselves - a full 1950s skirt would not look good at all. But the lightweight ones are scrumptious.

I've never used crepe personally, but I've heard that it's a devil to sew on. Slither slither slither! But it can sweep and drape and cling in all the right places like few other things. Just make sure you don't get polyester! Yes, I'm a fiber snob.

By the way, crepe is a weave, whereas rayon is a fiber. I know that crepe comes/came in polyester, silk, and wool; I have a Lilli Ann suit made from wool crepe. Technically gabardine is a weave as well; you'll want wool or silk.

Linen is nice for summer, and so is lightweight wool. (Plus wool doesn't wrinkle like linen.) Wool is my current fabric love - it drapes like heaven and shapes like a dream. Tropical weight, 6-8 oz. per square yard, is what you'll want. If you line it, don't use a polyester lining! It's like wearing a trash bag, in my not-so-humble opinion.

I wish there were more wool dresses out there. Just in period fiction I've come across a lot of references to wool dresses. As soon as I finish some current projects I want to make some wool dresses of my own.

If you need sources, there are a good number of online fabric shops that I've patronized. I'll be happy to share some with you.

 

[Katydid]

I love fabric!

Make sure the cottons you use are fairly lightweight. Heavier cottons have no drape whatsoever. They wrinkle and look "crumbly" and stick to themselves - a full 1950s skirt would not look good at all. But the lightweight ones are scrumptious.

I've never used crepe personally, but I've heard that it's a devil to sew on. Slither slither slither! But it can sweep and drape and cling in all the right places like few other things. Just make sure you don't get polyester! Yes, I'm a fiber snob.

By the way, crepe is a weave, whereas rayon is a fiber. I know that crepe comes/came in polyester, silk, and wool; I have a Lilli Ann suit made from wool crepe. Technically gabardine is a weave as well; you'll want wool or silk.

Linen is nice for summer, and so is lightweight wool. (Plus wool doesn't wrinkle like linen.) Wool is my current fabric love - it drapes like heaven and shapes like a dream. Tropical weight, 6-8 oz. per square yard, is what you'll want. If you line it, don't use a polyester lining! It's like wearing a trash bag, in my not-so-humble opinion.

I wish there were more wool dresses out there. Just in period fiction I've come across a lot of references to wool dresses. As soon as I finish some current projects I want to make some wool dresses of my own.

If you need sources, there are a good number of online fabric shops that I've patronized. I'll be happy to share some with you.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have to agree that Polyester is the most horrible fabric. If you could, I'd love to check out those online places. There's nothing around here!

 

[CherryRed]

This is my favorite source for vintage reproduction cotton prints:
http://equilter.com/

Search vintage and 1930's

 

[Sunny]

OK! *cracks knuckles* These are the best general sources:

Fashion Fabrics Club - very wide selection of fabrics; wools and silks are the ones I look at most; they get nice cotton prints in, too - get on their email list!
Denver Fabrics - nicely redesigned website; good emails
Fabric.com/Pheonix Textiles - they have a good clearance section
Trim Fabric - perhaps this is some kind of remnant sale near the garment district? They have some good stuff

Some of these are arranged like regular retail stores; others seem more like rummage sales - a little hard to search, but some really good deals. I have other, less general sources, if you're looking for something in particular.

Reproduction Fabrics and Baum Textile also have repro cotton prints. And Fabrics-Store is the best source for linen that I've found.

Don't forget ebay, either. There are two fabric sections: One in the regular sewing section, and one under vintage textiles. I've gotten 5 yards of wool for $8! It made a very fetching Civil War dress.

 

[Snookie]

Good prints in a fabric that drapes well is the hardest thing to come by -- Katydid, if you are interested in those rayon prints at your nearby store, ckeck out some vintage fabric prints first, and maybe bring some with you (computer print-outs from online sources, etc.). I get so muddleheaded looking at pretty fabrics that it gets hard to remember if the print is vintage-y enough.

Good vintagey solids, stripes, and polka-dots are not as hard to find. (although sewing with stripes can be very tricky!)

I've made some very successful garments with nice polyesters. It's easer to find fabric that drapes well in poly, and I especially like the wash-and-wear aspect. (I don't really care if my garments aren't totally period if they look good -- it's more of a costume for me.) I do try to avoid the tell-tale poly shine, though -- you can just see the fibers glisten, sometimes, can't you?

 

[Wire9Vintage]

I just posted about this old Life Magazine story on my blog, and thought I should share this particular image here with you all. Have you ever seen anything more awesome than the Coty fabric?? I want it so very badly!

 

[RodeoRose]

This is perfect; I don't know how many times I've looked at the top of my Coty's box and envisioned the cotton puff pattern as a print for a blouse! The second model's little top and scarf are seriously my dream come true.

Now, what are the odds a piece in that print will ever cross my path? lol